1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to shellfish opening knives generally and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a novel bivalve shellfish opening knife with a hinged blade guard.
2. Background Art
A basic bivalve shellfish opening knife is a relatively simple device and typically consists of a blade extending from a handle, the major axes of the blade and the handle being coaxial. In use, a person holds the handle of the knife in one hand, while a bivalve shellfish, such as a clam or oyster, is held in the other hand. The fingers of the hand holding the shellfish are curled around the back edge of the knife blade and pressure exerted by the fingers of that hand on the back edge of the knife blade is used to force the front edge of the knife blade into the shellfish between the two halves thereof. Once the knife enters the shellfish, pressure on the back of the knife is no longer required and the fingers of that hand can be relaxed. Once the adductor muscle holding the two halves has been severed, the shellfish can be opened with the hand holding the handle of the knife and the knife blade used to scrape the shellfish free from the shell.
A disadvantage of such an arrangement is that, especially for a person not used to opening a large number of shellfish at one time, placing pressure on the back edge of the blade of the knife with the fingers can become painful and may result in blistering.
Some types of knives for opening bivalve shellfish and other types of food items have been described in the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 1,316,315, issued Sep. 16, 1919, to Mars, and titled IMPLEMENT FOR USE IN REMOVING THE CONTENTS OF EGGS, describes a foldable knife that, when folded, the handle portion thereof folds over a portion of the cutting edge of the device located on the shank of the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,352,108, issued Sep. 7, 1920, to Arthur, and titled OYSTER SHUCKING KNIFE, describes such a knife that has a guard that can be folded over the blade so that the user can safely carry the knife in the user""s pocket. The guard covers both edges of the blade of the knife.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,846,908, issued Nov. 12, 1974, to Allievi, and titled CLAM, OYSTER AND NUT CRACKER, describes an implement for opening such items that includes a leg portion hingedly attached to a blade portion at a point nearer the distal end of the blade portion than the proximal end of the blade portion, the item to be cracked to be inserted between the blade portion and the leg portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,078, issued Jan. 9, 1979, to Cromwell, and titled BIVALVE OPENER, describes a bivalve opener somewhat similar to the one described immediately above, in that a bivalve to be opened is placed in a vice-like arrangement.
None of the foregoing patented devices provides means for guarding the fingers of a person opening a bivalve shellfish.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a bivalve shellfish opening knife and method that protect the fingers of a user.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such knife and method that are easily used and do not increase the time required to otherwise open a shellfish.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide such a knife that can be economically constructed using conventional manufacturing techniques.
It is another object of the invention to provide means attached to the knife for conveniently assuring that only a minimum size shellfish will be opened.
Other objects of the present invention, as well as particular features, elements, and advantages thereof, will be elucidated in, or be apparent from, the following description and the accompanying drawing figures.
The present invention achieves the above objects, among others, by providing, in a preferred embodiment, a bivalve shellfish opening knife, comprising: a handle portion; a blade portion, having front and rear edges, extending from one end of said handle portion; a rear blade edge guard hingedly attached to said blade portion near a proximal end thereof in proximity to a proximal end of said handle portion; and said rear blade edge guard having defined therein a channel sized to accommodate therein said rear edge of said blade portion when said rear blade edge guard is rotated against said blade portion.